Just days before they were murdered in Sicily, two gangsters from Canada were caught on tape making fun of a fellow mobster for being too frightened to pull the trigger during the shock 2004 shooting in Toronto’s California Sandwiches that inadvertently paralyzed an innocent mother.

Juan Ramon Fernandez, a staunch henchman in the Montreal Mafia who had been deported from Canada in 2012, was catching up on underworld gossip with Fernando Pimentel, a criminal associate from Mississauga who was visiting him in Sicily on April 1.

The gangsters were chuckling at Pietro Scaduto, who was an intended target of the botched Toronto shooting that paralyzed Louise Russo.

Two mobsters face murder charges in Italy after two other gangsters were ambushed and killed in April in what is believed to be a transatlantic extension of Montreal’s mob war. All four men once lived in Canada and as Italy’s probe continues, attention turns to what role a practising lawyer in Quebec might have played in the deadly dispute, the National Post has learned.

The lawyer is not being named because of the sensitivity of the sweeping investigation that resulted in the arrests of 21 men in Sicily last month. Italian investigators were surprised to find that much of the criminal intrigue in the birthplace of the Mafia revolved around mobsters currently in Canada or former residents of Canada.

Authorities in Italy think the lawyer may be an important figure in their investigation, possibly acting as an intermediary, according to sources.

The lawyer was in contact with Juan Ramon Fernandez — a 56-year-old gangster deported from Canada last year who resettled in Sicily — up until he was lured to an ambush and shot dead near Palermo on April 9, alongside a Canadian criminal colleague, Fernando Pimentel, 36, of Mississauga, Ont.

The lawyer was also in contact with Pietro Scaduto, 49, who, along with his brother Salvatore, 51, was charged with two counts of murder for the deaths.

The Scaduto brothers are also former residents of Canada, having moved here after their father was killed in a gangland feud in 1989, and Pietro, himself, was wounded in an ambush in 1990. Pietro was deported 14 years later when he was involved in the botched mob hit in a Toronto restaurant in 2004 that left Louise Russo, an innocent mother, paralyzed.

A third man, Giuseppe Carbone, admitted he was also involved in the Sicily slayings and is co-operating with authorities, officials said.

He, too, has ties to Canada. His brother, Andrea Carbone, was deported from Canada after the same botched Toronto shooting.

Mr. Fernandez had long been an important henchman for Vito Rizzuto, named as the head of the Mafia in Montreal, and Italian authorities believe the order to kill Mr. Fernandez came from Canada and was spillover from the war for control of Montreal’s underworld.

The RCMP declined to discuss the case.

“The RCMP will not comment on any ongoing investigation,” said Corp. Laurence Trottier.

Lieutenant-Colonel Fabio Bottino, commander in Palermo of the Carabinieri R.O.S., the paramilitary police unit that probes organized crime and transnational crime, also declined to discuss the lawyer, but said his intense investigation, codenamed Operation Argo, reveals “an operational link” between the Mafia in Sicily and the Mafia in Canada.

After leaving Canada, the Scadutos sought to re-establish their family as a mob power in Bagheria while maintaining contact with friends in Montreal and Toronto, authorities said.

“We believe that [the Scadutos] were feeling strong also due to their links to the Canadian Mafia,” said Lt.-Col. Bottino.

Recently, the Scadutos envisioned seizing control in the underworld of Bagheria, a neighbouring city of Palermo, authorities allege. They were prepared to kill anyone who stood in their way, including — if needed — Sergio Flamia, who was an influential boss in the area of Bagheria, and Michele Modica, another deportee from Canada, according to authorities.

Mr. Flamia had grown close to Mr. Fernandez. In fact, Mr. Fernandez was making so much money for his partners that most mobsters in the area wanted to work with him and were even willing to overlook his flouting Mafia convention by claiming to be an official “made member” of Montreal’s Mafia despite being Spanish, not Italian.

(Mr. Fernandez said he was inducted into the Mafia by Vito Rizzuto at a ceremony that also inducted Raynald Desjardins, a francophone Quebecer, in violation of old Mafia rules, according to wiretap recordings.)

“Every day Fernandez was growing stronger,” said Lt.-Col. Bottino.

The Scaduto brothers began to fear that Mr. Fernandez and Mr. Flamia might gang up on them to squelch their bid for power, authorities allege. It is alleged that Pietro Scaduto reached out to Canadian contacts to help resolve the situation.

Permission to kill someone such as Mr. Fernandez would likely require permission from Canada to avert possible revenge.

“An order such of this could only come from someone of a high rank within the mob in Canada,” said Lt-Col. Bottino.

For his part, Pietro Scaduto has denied killing Mr. Fernandez, telling authorities that the two men were longtime friends.

Mr. Scaduto said Mr. Fernandez helped him when he was imprisoned in Canada and, in turn, he helped Mr. Fernandez when he moved to Sicily after his deportation from Canada.